Tonight at the Fox and Newt in Leeds is a display of some of the country's 'younger' hardcore bands. 'Younger' is begrudgingly used however, as in the past year or two, all of these bands have ripped their way into the collective conscience of UK hardcore, and tonight is just another attempt to wake us up and remind us just how good we have it at the moment. They may be young in terms of conception, but looking at the quality of their output, both on record and live, it's a different story.
First up are Grazes, Sheffield's most ballistic thrashers. They kick off the night with a surprisingly vicious welcome to the Fox and Newt pub. Vocalist Ben is a wolf-in-sheeps-clothing type of guy; at a glance you'd expect his stage presence to be a relatively tame one. On the contrary, it's constantly aggressive, circling the area in front of us, bursting into whiplash shouts moving through speedy to sludgy attacks.
When songs from this year's 'Myths' are transferred live they have a much more cutting effect all round. On record, these are razor sharp punk lashings, however live they are laced with several extra layers of aggression and leave this small room above Fox and Newt pub quaking.
Black Mass are one of those live bands that manage to be completely audibly offensive to about 95% of the earth's population, but placed in front of a crowd they soak up every bead of attention and use it to ooze this kind of filthy charisma, which they ring through their tarry music. That might be something only noticed through beery eyes, but they howl through their set at the Fox and Newt with a well crafted form of destructive Leeds doom.
'Pull your thumbs from my eyes and let me see what's real'. Crossbreaker are just fucking rage. Tracks from their recent 'Lows' EP are unfolded with a crunching violence, bringing the room down around them. 'Woe Is Me' shines through as it's fast guttural vocals combined with their relentless pace makes for a real slugger of a tune.
Their whole live show is kind of mesmerising. Once the stage is theirs, it's impossible not be drawn in and immersed in their display of hate. The hope is they don't burn out before they release their debut album.
Crossbreaker have been well deserving of a strong headline tour for a while now. They've supported everyone from Trash Talk to Gallows and often mill about somewhere in the middle of all-dayer line ups, but the healthy turn out tonight is more than proof that the next year or so should have a lot more Crossbreaker.
PHOTOS BY JACK SUTCLIFFE: http://jacklsutcliffe.blogspot.com/
First up are Grazes, Sheffield's most ballistic thrashers. They kick off the night with a surprisingly vicious welcome to the Fox and Newt pub. Vocalist Ben is a wolf-in-sheeps-clothing type of guy; at a glance you'd expect his stage presence to be a relatively tame one. On the contrary, it's constantly aggressive, circling the area in front of us, bursting into whiplash shouts moving through speedy to sludgy attacks.
When songs from this year's 'Myths' are transferred live they have a much more cutting effect all round. On record, these are razor sharp punk lashings, however live they are laced with several extra layers of aggression and leave this small room above Fox and Newt pub quaking.
Black Mass are one of those live bands that manage to be completely audibly offensive to about 95% of the earth's population, but placed in front of a crowd they soak up every bead of attention and use it to ooze this kind of filthy charisma, which they ring through their tarry music. That might be something only noticed through beery eyes, but they howl through their set at the Fox and Newt with a well crafted form of destructive Leeds doom.
'Pull your thumbs from my eyes and let me see what's real'. Crossbreaker are just fucking rage. Tracks from their recent 'Lows' EP are unfolded with a crunching violence, bringing the room down around them. 'Woe Is Me' shines through as it's fast guttural vocals combined with their relentless pace makes for a real slugger of a tune.
Their whole live show is kind of mesmerising. Once the stage is theirs, it's impossible not be drawn in and immersed in their display of hate. The hope is they don't burn out before they release their debut album.
Crossbreaker have been well deserving of a strong headline tour for a while now. They've supported everyone from Trash Talk to Gallows and often mill about somewhere in the middle of all-dayer line ups, but the healthy turn out tonight is more than proof that the next year or so should have a lot more Crossbreaker.
PHOTOS BY JACK SUTCLIFFE: http://jacklsutcliffe.blogspot.com/
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